I have been slow to write on the tragic end of the ‘Rambo-dad saga’… Tom Phillips, The father who took his 3 children into the New Zealand bush and alluded police for 4 years.
I’ve been gathering data and allowing some time to pass to see what additional information might be forthcoming.
What follows is full of speculation on my part, yet I believe I’m justified in tabling many disturbing questions that need answers.
I provide *context* as to why such questions are valid.
There was an eclipse the very hour Tom fell to a Policeman’s bullet.
An evil sign in the heavens.
A dark cold morning. 8 September 2025. Piopoi Waikato.
In the shootout he badly injured and nearly killed a Lawman who had thwarted his escape by placing road spikes across his path… taking out the tires on his 4 wheeler.
Tom’s luck had run out. He was shot dead by a second officer who arrived on the scene… so we are told.
A medivac helicopter rushed the injured officer to hospital. Tom’s body was left where it lay.
We can only assume he was past help.
All this transpired in front of one of his kids (his oldest daughter?) who accompanied him on many of his outlaw escapades and was with him at this final showdown.
Deeply traumatising.
This was not the end most New Zealanders wanted.
It was super sad news.
Misguided or not, Tom’s plight found it’s way into the nations heart.
A desperate Father alone against the State.
We must ask… what went so wrong for Tom to believe such extreme actions were called for on his part?
Many people only have the filtered ‘official narrative’ upon which to base their conclusions… and are satisfied, yet there are other unofficial unmoderated sources of information. Social media for one where people more freely talk and share diverse opinions.
And, as I live in the Waikato where these events transpired, people here got to hear stories that are circulating on the ground… mostly from Marakopa Locals who have been living this saga in real time.
It is interesting stuff, and one thing that makes my account worth considering is I include what some locals had been saying, well before the fateful hour.
They include the rumor that some Marakopa locals believed Tom was marked for death.
They were telling people about this several months before the fateful night.
I herd about it through friends at work who used to live out there, and who had been stopped by armed police at a roadblock and questioned if they knew the whereabouts of Tom Phillips.
Interrogating the public… looking for ‘collaborators’, it’s fair to say these actions won the police little favour.
I don’t profess to be an ‘authority’ on any of this, I’m just putting things down as I herd them. I contemplate how they may explain Tom’s actions, and I consider any lessons we as a country should learn from this that might help prevent anything like this happening again.
Could there be some social good that comes from this?
Important note: *Please read my article to the very end* including Postscripts 2 and 3. There has been a particularly nasty rumor spread on-line about Tom Phillips without a shred of supporting evidence… claims that there is far more sinister doings involved in this case than what we the public has been ‘officially’ told*.
So the claim involves the police as holding facts in secret that if known would absolutely turn the public against Tom.
Yet as of the time of writing this article this claim is *nothing but hearsay*. So I discount them.
I deal with these rumours in the postscripts.
Watch/Read : NZ Herald Tom Phillips dead: Fugitive Marokopa dad shoots policeman; children found safe
For 4 years New Zealanders were ‘wowed’ by the daring exploits of this renegade Father evading Police capture and surviving in the New Zealand bush with his 3 young children.
Tom loved his kids, of this there can be no doubt, yet as time passed and Tom (allegedly) committed more crimes to sustain life on the run, the more headaches he caused the Police, and the more heat he was bringing down upon himself.
They wanted him bad, so as the years ticked by their frustration and determination grew.
Some locals suspected the Police were falsely accusing Tom of all sorts of things… a one man crime wave.
One person said to me ” If a bicycle gets stolen… the Police will claim it was Tom Phillips.”
The Police were certain Tom must be receiving help from friends helping him to evade capture.
It’s easy to posit that a strategy of blaming Tom for every crime in town was to try and turn public opinion and his alleged support base against him.
And so skepticism of the Police and their methods continued to grow.
Tom Phillip’s children, Ember ((9), Maverick (10), and Jayda (12)
People are divided in their estimation of Tom Philips, esp after a Policeman was shot.
Many automatically assume the NZ Police are the heroes, and Tom… the Villain.
Ultimately that’s a fair call given the seriousness of what transpired, and it was with the cooperation of some of the locals that Toms time on the run expired.
Still… despite everything that went down there remains a sizable minority of New Zealanders who see beyond that simplistic evaluation appreciating deeper factors at play.
They believe there is sufficient reason to suspect the NZ Police (ie legal systems) as the primary villains… Goons hired by a fundamentally corrupt system, and Tom as the victim of real injustices… and a renegade hero of sorts.
Not taking sides yet with definite empathy for Tom, I want to enunciate why IMO many New Zealanders see Tom as an almost legendary character.
He may be dead, yet his story will live on in Kiwi Folklore.
Watch this Youtube video (below).
The video (above) claims to analyze the Tom Phillips Saga.
It has a lot of details correct, and that is the main reason I’m including it in this post yet was childishly derogatory of Tom Phillips appearance, and ultimately failed to provide any explanation as to why Tom Philips acted in the way he did.
People were left to assume Tom was just a dangerous Whacko.
IMO the truth is far deeper and concerning than that.
Let me now lay down what I believe triggered Tom’s determination never to surrender his kids.
As most of us know from first hand experience, relationships are notoriously hard to maintain. Most are doomed to crash and burn… and it’s so much worse when there are kids involved.
This so often results in messy custody disputes, court orders, etc
That Tom and Cat had separated was mentioned in the video yet it still missed the fundamental reason Tom took his kids into the bush.
This was fundamentally a custody Battle.
Tom vs Cat… Tom vs Family Court.
I believe what transpired finds it’s root cause in that Tom sought to keep his children from being placed with their (alleged) drug addicted- gang related mother… ie for their safety.
He did not believe his Meth-using Ex partner was a fit mother or example.
The video completely ignored this powerful motive.
Those who support the police narrative tend to down play this essential point.
Tom was not a monster, but a loving Father motivated by his instincts to protect his kids.
This is what much of the general public believed and why many of them supported Tom.
We all know things went terribly wrong, yet originally he was not some sort of werdo-radical, but a caring father who believed (probably correctly) that the system was against him ‘
With very few options, he did what he believed at the time to be was in the best interests of his children.
Obviously he felt the Police and Courts were unjust.
And the truth is New Zealand has a poor record of Fathers rights.
Many New Zealanders know the system is rigged against fathers, so this is why they empathized with Tom.
We have a system with heavily entrench bias that never takes any cognizance of it’s own grotesque miscarriages of justice.
Most Fathers when confronted with the injustices of the Family courts feel compelled to surrender to the Powers that be.
Thousands of fathers endure years of miss-applied guilt, terrible alienation from their children, and financial ruin at the hands of IRD.
The courts are very slow to punish woman for breaches of custody agreements and court declarations.
Many despairing men die because of it.
We have a suicide epidemic in this country… more than twice as many men kill themselves than woman do… yet the official narrative is that woman are the oppressed sex in our society while men enjoy ‘privilege’. That’s what we are expected to believe.
I say the Official ‘Feminist’ narrative is obviously Bogus!
Another telling fact is that the children have not been reunited with their mother but remain in the custody of ‘Oranga Tamariki’… New Zealand’s Social services for Children. This indicates to me that even the Government is thinking twice about their mothers fitness to care for the children.
Sid Hanzlik. Photo (and story) ‘The story behind the man who took his life on parliament grounds’ here
Suicides of men in NZ… Grieving the destruction of their families, is a topic that is kept under the rug. Most go unreported.
One case was so public and shocking that it could not be ignored by the media, and I would place this death as yet another example of a Father pushed to extremes.
In 2017 Father (Sid Hanzlik) was so stricken with grief about being separated from his children that he set himself on fire on Parliament grounds in protest of his perceived injustice by the NZ Family Court… He died a horrible death, yet nothing changed.
How bad must things get before the State considers why Men are driven to extremes?
The system is broke.
Also Read: Man set himself on fire at Parliament – police
And: Coroner reports on Zdenek Hanzlik who set himself on fire at Parliament
In custody battles NZ judges habitually favor the mother. (See above chart)
This is ideological prejudice against fathers.
Most Men submit… Tom didn’t, and the rest is history.
The NZ Police were humiliated by Tom’s 4 year success at alluding capture and had put a $80 000.00 dollar reward on his head (for capture)… They harassed the locals with road blocks… stopping vehicles, etc. Asking if they had seen Tom, and tempting them with the reward.
On top of this rumor’s were circulating that the Police in fact intended to shoot him on sight… all things that might explain why Desperado Tom Philips died with his boots on… Guns blazing.
I have been mocked on social media for stating this idea… that Tom may have thought he had crossed the Rubicon and that surrendering was no longer an option.
One critic said “no such kill orders are ever issued in New Zealand”. I’m not saying any such order was issued.
I’m simply reporting *what locals were saying*… rumours that were 100% circulating in the months before the showdown.
Even if untrue it’s still possible Tom had herd them too and they may well have affected his determinations.
What a truly sad and ignomous end!
Many wonder if it really had to go down that way.
Many people do not trust the Police’s version of events… I wonder why?
We Pray for Tom’s Children, and the recovery of the injured cop.
How much more information will be forthcoming?
Will the public get any kind of transparent investigation into the handling of this case. We shall see.
No doubt they will go through the motions of reviewing how the police conducted themselves in this case… yet as always… they will find themselves vindicated.
The bigger questions about the fairness of the system towards fathers rights will go unanswered. Nothing will change… unless some political party takes up the cause, and they are unlikely to do that unless members of the public kick up a big enough stink to make it a vote winning issue.
We the public need to rally and demand better/ fair treatment of men by our legal system.
And We need to ask the Police to review how they deal with men in crisis.
There has to be better PR, better negotiations, and Less risk aversion- less fatal options for more just outcomes.
One thing is certain… pray you nor any loved one never suffers any sort of mental breakdown in this country… as presently… the way the NZ Police take care of Business… you may get shot dead… as a matter of ‘standard’ Police operational procedures.
The NZ Police Bigwigs have done their best to Demonise Tom Phillips, yet what do you expect them to say given they need to justify killing him.????
What we hear from the Police in such circumstances is not candid and forthright accounts of how things unfold… but carefully constructed narratives… omitting anything that might weaken their own position… so what we are fed is more *A Legal defense*… than the plain truth.
Will we… the public ever hear the Full unfiltered story?
Highly unlikely!
In a documentary that has been rushed into production by some journalists who were invited along on the Police Choppers etc in their operations to hunt down Tom Philips, The public have been told that The Police themselves will get to do the final edit before it is shown to the public!
They will justify this by claiming it to be necessary for the sake of any ‘ongoing investigations, and court processes… yet why would they then expect the NZ public to place any credibility on the so-called ‘documentary’ when the NZ Police will have already ‘sanitized it of any facts or opinions that might cast themselves in a bad light?
One thing is certain… Dead men tell no tales.
And: RNZ Tom Phillips’ family ‘disturbed’ documentary is being made
Steve Wallace 23. Photo The Post.
The New Zealand Police have over the past few decades been involved in many questionable shooting Deaths… yet always ‘officially’ being found to have been ‘justified’.
Two come straight to my mind. One was a Young Man smashing up shop windows with a Golf club in the small town of Waitara April 30 2000.
Steve Wallace was shot and killed, and later the NZ Police were found to have been justified in their actions, yet not so in the minds of many New Zealanders who considered his shooting as cowardly and unnecessary. Gun Ho and excessive use of force.
The pain and controversy still continues to this day.
What Steven was doing was wrong… yet does that justify what the Police did?
Read: Steven Wallace’s controversial shooting goes to UN after 25 years
One shocking report by witnesses says that after Steven was shot… the police did little or nothing to come to his aid… but left him to bleed out where he lay without any comfort.
Was this true?
If so that is extremely Cold, and I would even say a crime not to provide medical care after he had been rendered helpless and no longer a threat.
It was hearing this accusation that causes me to wonder whether Tom Phillips received any medical assistance in his final moments?
One wonders if he was in fact dead by the time the Medivac helicopter arrived on the scene?
Or was he left to die as was claimed happened to Steven Wallace?
We must await more details.
Nick Marshall and his dad Nelson Marshall. Marshall Transmissions. Photo: Peter Drury. Fairfax NZ
Another more recent questionable Police shooting comes to my mind was when NZ Police shot and killed Meth Head Nick Marshall of Hamilton, during a Dawn raid on his residence.
As this happened in my town, and I have had several conversations with people who knew him.
Being a Meth Head means no sympathy from most of the New Zealand Public who have been conditioned to think of this minority as *Sub human*… so few people cared that he died in a pool of his own blood.
I remember reading the original Waikato Times article and thinking this possibly is yet another excessive use of force by the NZ police for a non-violent offender.
The story at the time was that Nick thought he was being Home invaded by a Gang for his Drugs… this is why… according to a witness (girlfriend?) he presented his shotgun… and was shot forthwith.
Read/Watch: Police say shot man was armed
Now The Police obviously have presented *their story* and if it is to be believed… they say they clearly and loudly announced they were the Police… and according to their account Nick pulled a gun… and was shot. Simple as that. Yet The thing we all must understand is that the Police will *always* present their statements in such a way that vindicate themselves… rather than the un-glossed… un scripted facts.
Was there no other way they might have entered the premises and arrested Marshall without the need of shooting him dead?
The Dawn Raid is inherently extreme… a simple knock on the door at a reasonable hour may have achieved a far better result.
Read ‘Report’ : Fatal Police shooting of Nicholas Marshall.
I’m just asking questions… Important questions… that have bearing on what happened to Tom Phillips.
Understand that I’m not so much questioning the conduct of trained and instructed front line officers who put themselves in volatile situations … the point of the spear… I’m more concerned with the ‘Philosophy’… the politics… and the bureaucracy… of our whole system… That invisibly creates many of these altercations… like the War on Drugs… or so-called Safety rules and processes that deem it ‘justifiable’ to shoot dead a citizen suffering a highly stressful or psychotic episode.
Do people even care that our system probably is unnecessarily killing Men, and that Police officers ‘following orders’ also suffer the consequences for bad laws, unjust courts, and Bad processes?
Like the officer who was shot by Tom Phillips. They have to square off against Men who have been pushed beyond breaking point by real systemic injustice.
No one is suggesting Tom was a saint… any more than Steve Wallace or Nick Marshall.
That (allegedly) Tom involved his eldest daughter Jayda in some of his criminal activities to gain recourses for maintaining his ongoing escapade… that was callous.
That some (allegedly) involved firearms definitely raised the stakes as far as the Police were concerned. That is completely understandable.
Nobody was harmed in the perpetration of his (alleged) crimes, yet by their very nature (True or not) would justify the police to consider him armed and dangerous, and any use of force they deem necessary to bring things to a swift conclusion.
I fear Tom had resolved… Give me Liberty… or Death. It appears he had no intension of surrendering quietly… or was it that he felt that was not an option? That he was to be executed on sight?
The $100 question is why… after the road spikes had taken out his 4 wheeler… did he shoot instead of surrendering?
Did he expect no mercy… that his only option was to open fire?
It is terrible that a Police officer was shot, and badly injured.
This alone causes many Kiwis to despise Tom Philips.
They will have no truck with arguments that try to justify or excuse Tom’s actions.
I’m doing neither, yet still many will think ill of me for daring to suggest systemic injustice played a large part in that fateful night and that Tom probably felt he must shoot his way out.
Let me make it clear I abhor violence and do not advocate for violence against the Police.
I have a very close member of my family in the front line of the NZ Police Force.
Yet that does not cause me to have one eye, nor be a sycophant for the system.
I have more intelligence than that.
Thankfully we still live in a free society where we the people are allowed to question the actions of our Police and government.
I’m exercising this right.
More so it is our duty as citizens to keep an eye on how our Police conduct themselves.
Theses crucial rights are currently under assault by governments who care little for Enlightenment truths and values.
That the Police, and sheeple may consider my questioning whether Philips needed to die as some sort of character fault on my part speaks volumes about how Anti-freedom… pro-blind faith in authority many people have become.
That the Police might tag people like myself for daring to hold them to the flame as being * a radical with dangerous opinions’…. what sort of society is such Police attitudes pointing towards???
The price of Liberty is Eternal Vigilance.
We *must* always watch what the Powers that be are doing in our name.
I’m not advocating for being ‘soft on crime’. I believe in the appropriate use of force… for justice sake.
I think there is something fundamentally wrong when the Police use risk adverse strategies that result in the unnecessary slaying of civilians.
Lets hope that the NZ Justice system and Family courts wake up to their grievous injustices against Fathers.
New Zealanders need to wake up and take cognizance of the death toll on Dads caused by the present skew against men… and demand reform.
The ideology that paints men as the default abusers and woman as the default victims must be confronted for the travesty that it is.
RIP Tom Phillips.
May The grace of the Lord be with your children.
Tim Wikiriwhi.
Christian Libertarian.
Postscript:1
I Asked Grok (AI) what percentage of divorces in New Zealand are initiated by The wives vs Husbands….
Groks conclusions….
“While New Zealand lacks specific public data on divorce initiation by gender, the US’s 70-30 split (wives vs. husbands) is a reasonable proxy given similar legal and social contexts. Your points about fathers’ fears of custody loss and women’s confidence in securing custody and support are well-founded and align with international research and New Zealand’s family law patterns. The absence of precise data could stem from administrative priorities or cultural sensitivities…”
One solid reason Woman more than double the divorce initiation rate than Men in Western Nations is because of Systemic bias in their favour… against Men’s rights.
Men endure more personal pain for the sake of their kids and keeping the family together….
Grok says… “Your point about fathers enduring more pain for the sake of their children is supported by psychological research. Men are often socialized to prioritize family stability and may tolerate unhappy marriages to maintain proximity to their children. A 2016 study on divorce motivations found men are more likely to cite “staying for the kids” as a reason to avoid separation, while women are more likely to prioritize personal fulfillment.
This dynamic could amplify the 70-30 split, as fathers may avoid initiating divorce due to emotional and practical concerns, including fear of estrangement from children.”
Postscript 2.
I have become aware that another very disturbing rumour has begun to circulate of the most malicious kind… a claim so vile I hesitate to share it… even to debunk it.
I’s a depraved claim circulating on line that Tom ‘fathered’ a child (or 2) with his oldest daughter.
What a vicious thing to say!
It’s so insidious that even if proven false a tarnish remains on anyone upon whom such an accusation is made.
As things stand, I consider this to be nothing more than malicious fable.
This sort of heavy accusation demands *heavy Proof* before granting them any credence.
None whatsoever has been forthcoming.
It’s precisely the type of slander you expect to destroy a person’s standing.
So until something solid arises. I’m rejecting it outright.
If it proves false… which I most certainly expect, it will serve as a classic example of the sort of malicious character assassination that Men often.
If true… it will forever stain his name.
I can with confidence assert this disgusting rumour to be false because I must assume the police would make such information public because if true it would bolster their case.
Postscript 3. I have had a heated debate with a very Pro-police guy who tells me they 100% know with certainty that the above rumour is valid, yet that the police are keeping this secret ‘for the sake of children involved’.
This person did not like my article and said ‘I should not be talking about the case… and that they threw a copy of my article I’d left for people to read… in the bin.
This person expects me to take him at his word… without proof.
This is someone who I give a lot of credibility to… and yet I am unprepared to deem Tom Phillips as being guilty of such a hideous accusation… just on hearsay.
So until The Police release clear statements that there is a whole other level of offending involved in this case I must keep to the principle of assumed innocence until *proven* guilty.
The nature of these accusations causes people to become extremely sensitive… and angry… quick to assume the worst… and to hate anyone (like me) who prefers to wait until proof is tabled before accepting these rumours to be valid.
This is a person who I do not wish to lose as a friend, yet I can tell he does not like me even questioning the police version of events.
I do not mind that he feels so strongly about Tom Phillips being a Bad guy… he has his reasons… Yet it saddens me that he thinks less of me simply because I prefer to wait for more substance before I outright condemn Tom Phillips.
I reserve judgement.
On the question of the Publics right to know.
As I consider the idea that the police might believe it to be justified to keep the NZ public in the dark about certain aspects of this case… ‘for the sake of children’… I’m sorry but that smacks of bullshit to me. That does not mean it is BS… what it means is that the very idea that *the police* get to decide what they tell the public rather than full disclosure… causes the public to lose confidence on them. We Citizens have a right to know the full story so that we can have confidence that our police are behaving in a fully ethical manner. What have they got to hide?
It’s like what happened with The Christchurch Terror attack. The whole business was covered up. There was no public court case in which The people got to hear the defense of the accused.
His ‘Manifesto’ was made illegal to download, read, and share… all we have is the Crowns/ Polices version of events. The reason they said they must suppress all information and leave the public in the dark? ” Because it might cause a copy cat crime”.!!! I shit you not! That is supposed to satisfy the people of New Zealand as a reason why the government is going to hide the truth from us… and make it almost a crime to even talk about it.
………….
More from Tim…
Heart Ripped out. This ones for all the Dying Dads … and the Survivors.
